Very Blueberry Muffins

A very BLUEberry muffin!

This weekend I was trapped at home the better of Saturday morning waiting for the dreaded cable guy to come. To make the best of a bad morning, I whipped up these muffins for breakfast.

VERY BLUEBERRY MUFFINS (servings: 12 muffins)
**This recipe is modified from America's Test Kitchen

LEMON-SUGAR TOPPING:
(I made extra of this because I really wanted a lot of sugar topping on my muffins)

• 1/3 cup sugar
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated zest from 1 lemon

1. Stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined; set aside.

MUFFINS:

• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1 1/8 cups sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• Egg Replacer = 2 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons Earthbalance, melted
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup "buttermilk" = Soymilk + tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar.
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

MAKING JAM:

1. Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar (I added more to my blueberries because they were bland store blueberries) to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat.
2. Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to ¼ cup, about 6 minutes.
3. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes

THE BATTER

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl.
   
2. Whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick.
   
3. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined.
   
4. Whisk in "buttermilk" and vanilla until combined.
   
5. Fold egg replacer and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture. (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.)
6. Divide batter equally among muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of jam into center of each mound of batter.
   
7. Using chopstick, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion.
   
8. Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins.
9. Bake 17-19 minutes until muffin tops are golden and firm, rotating muffin tin halfway through baking time.
   
10. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.

Breaded Eggplant

Breaded Eggplant & Linguine

Mondays are always rough, that is unless you come home after a late night meeting to find your wonderful boyfriend has a homemade dinner waiting for you! This post is brought to you by the amazing Mansoor, with the alternate title of "101 Reasons why my Boyfriend is the Best."

BREADED EGGPLANT - AKA Eggplant Parmesan minus Cheese
(Servings: 6 slices of eggplant)

Ingredients:

• 1 eggplant
• Olive oil
• Bread crumbs
• All-pupose flour
• Egg Replacer (Equivalent of 3 eggs)
• Garlic Salt
• Pepper
• Linguine
• 1 jar pasta sauce

Directions:

1. Cut the eggplant about 1/4in thick slices.
   
2. Then, season the eggplant slices with olive oil, garlic salt and pepper.
   
3. Set up 3 flat dishes: 1 with bread crumbs, 1 with all purpose flour, 1 with egg replacer.
4. Dip and coat each seasoned sliced of eggplant in flour, then egg replacer, then bread crumbs.
   
5. After all slices are coated, fry the eggplant in a pan until they are browned (2-3 minutes a side, depending on how thick the slices are).
6. After frying the slices, transfer them into a casserole dish with pasta sauce on the bottom, as well as a little sauce on top of the eggplant.
   
7. Bake for about 15-20 minutes at 375. Keep an eye on the oven to make sure they don't burn (they cook really fast).
   

This made the perfect dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day. We both agreed the thin slices of eggplant would be delicious in sandwich form (similar to a meat ball sub).

Peanut Butter Chocolate Drops

Peanut Butter Chocolate Drops

About once a month I get an extreme sweet tooth that forces me to bake something over-indulgent that I always regret eating. These "cookies" hit that sweet spot, especially since I am always looking for a vegan peanut-butter chocolate something to replace my past life love affair with Reeses.

The best part was too, that on a hot summer day, these are no bake!

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE DROPS (Serving: 25 pieces)
I am not going to list the recipe because I copied Chef Priyanka's recipe almost exactly. So go here, make these, and thank me/her later. (Hers came out prettier than mine (it is hard to get the nuts ground up really fine) but regarless of what they look like they still taste AMAZING).

NOTE: When rolling the 'dough' I was really tempted to make giant balls because they look so delicious- who wants such a small serving, right? BUT... these are VERY rich so the small balls are definitely the size you want.

Substitutions/changes I made:

• I could not find Hazelnuts in my grocery store, so I substituted Filberts.
• I used regular (not all natural) peanut butter because I am cheap.
• In the "Nutella" mixture, I added more soy milk and powdered sugar and oil. I made enough of the chocolate to make about 3 more batches of these suckers.